This month's SF Book in the Book Club is Helliconia Spring, the first novel in the Helliconia trilogy, first published in 1982:

Here's what i said when I reviewed the Trilogy in 2011:

I did read them back in the 1980’s when they were released as three separate books: Helliconia Spring, Helliconia Summer and Helliconia Winter, in 1982, 1983 and 1985 respectively. Hereafter I’m going to see them as one book, which is for all intents and purposes is how they read, as a uniform body of work (albeit in three parts.)

At the time of original writing they were a surprise, if I remember right. Here was a writer known for his SF writing (Hothouse, Greybeard, Report on Probability A, etc) writing what seemed (at first) to be a fantasy.

And if I remember right, a glacially slow series. Which made them a little disappointing.

However, there is an SF element to the books. For those who don’t know, Helliconia is a planet. The tales are told from the perspective of the inhabitants as they go through the world’s seasons. The twist in the tale here is that the seasons are very long: centuries long, long enough for species to live and die within one season, and especially in the long, cruel, bitter winters.

As the tale unfolds the perspective is drawn further back to the point where we realise that all that is being told is actually part of a planetary research report from the Earth ship Avernus. It is here that the reader discovers that, as part of a binary star system, all / most life on Helliconia will be extinguished. Much of the books are spent in the debate over whether Humans should interfere with the rise and fall of civilisations on the planet, which is an interesting counterpoint to what goes on in the research ship and on Earth.

We meet a variety of people/creatures on this journey: In Helliconia Spring, Yuli is a humanoid hunter-gatherer, one of the Freyr, who, as the world reawakens, we find experiences the development of an urban civilisation. Helliconia Spring tells of Yuli and his descendants as Helliconia Winter turns to Spring and the Freyr develop from hunters to urban dwellers. By the second book we have the dominance of the human-like species in a fantasy setting. We also encounter more about the Phagors, a Morlock-like furred white humanoid species, who begin in Helliconia Spring as seemingly simple hunters and carry off Yuri’s father. As the story deepens, however, in Summer and Winter we find that they have a richer background and culture and seem to have been on Helliconia long before the emergence of the human-like dominant species. The fantasy feel is quite strong as we discover about their lifestyles. To confirm this further, there’s even a dragon-like creature, the Wutra’s Worm, with an enormous lifespan.

The book is a case study in worldbuilding: evidently Aldiss spent time with physicists, astronomers, ecologists, climatologists, sociologists and microbiologists in creating a credible environment. Most importantly (according to Aldiss’s introduction) is Lovelock’s idea of Gaia, once fairly new in the 1980’s, and now seems to be increasingly plausible Perhaps, as a result, this book doesn’t seem as way out as it did when I first read it, though just as epic and majestic. Part of the joy of this book is to see how the world changes through the seasons and how the landscape and landforms adapt accordingly.

In the style of Olaf Stapledon’s First and Last Men, or some of HG Wells’ work, this book is perhaps the ultimate planetary romance, and deliberately so. In such a framework the writer writes as an observer rather than as part of the narrative. Consequently, the book seems written in a rather detached style. Though this can give a feeling of weight and gravity to the long tale, it can also create a coolness that distances the reader from the world and creatures within. They are being studied rather than interacted with.

In the 25 years or so since originally reading this, I now see where Aldiss is going. It is his view on civilisations, their ability to grow and decline and the causes and effects of such development. It also raises the question of whether in the grand scheme of things Mankind in the future may be worth preserving.

Though it is still slow to develop, it is surprisingly engaging. Do not expect it to be a fast-paced romp. Instead, it is a book where you expect to be immersed and be slowly awakened to the opportunities within.

It may be my greater age and experience, it may be that in these days of global warming and biomes the world’s just caught up with the concepts herein. However this was a much more satisfying read second time around. And good to see the background details given as Appendices here too.

It's one of my all time favorite epics, especially the first volume. I would say if you read it for the characters, you will probably be dissapointed. Helliconia Spring covers three or four generations, and the focus is not so much on individuals, but on the world waking up after a centuries long Ice Age. I was hooked right from the prologue with the massive migration of beasts crazened by a tiny parasite.

I've first read this in 1990, and at the time I was more interested in SF than in fantasy, so one thing that bothered me was the whole ancestor angle, obsidian ghosts communicating with the living. It felt out of place beside all the scientific details about binary suns, and biodiversity and climatic adaptations.

So far, I've had two problems, which might be related. 1) The boy is given two different ages. 2) He seems more clever that one might expect on his way to the settlement, given how he starts out.

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Good point, but nothing here is a mistake.

Have to remember that the year is much longer than Earth's. According to Wikipedia, Helliconia has a very long year (called The Great Year), equivalent to some 2500 Earth years. A Helliconia day is 480 Earth days.

Consequently a twelve 'year' old on Helliconia is the equivalent of 30 000 on Earth! (It doesn't happen....)

So yes, it is why they might seem mature for their ages. They also have a skill set that would suggest a formal education is less important than the skills attained through experience.

I read this a year or two ago and really struggled to finish it. I only continued with it (after putting it down one third of the way in due to boredom with the awful characters and the whole, overblown situation) out of respect for a writer I usually love. I couldn't imagine reading the other two volumes.

Perhaps I should expand a little on why I disliked it. I was intrigued by the idea of the story of a planet waking up after an ice age and the scale of the situation should have carried the story along. But instead Aldiss chose to get bogged down in a fantasy tale about a medieval village and its very Earthlike inhabitants. I can remember that when the plot shifted focus from this rather predictable group of wizards and no-hopers, things would get more interesting but not for long enough.

Have to remember that the year is much longer than Earth's. According to Wikipedia, Helliconia has a very long year (called The Great Year), equivalent to some 2500 Earth years. A Helliconia day is 480 Earth days.

Consequently a twelve 'year' old on Helliconia is the equivalent of 30 000 on Earth! (It doesn't happen....)

So yes, it is why they might seem mature for their ages. They also have a skill set that would suggest a formal education is less important than the skills attained through experience.

Mark

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Ok, that explains it. The first age given is 7 yrs, then a few pages later 9 yrs. From what you wrote, 7 Helliconian days is equiv to 9.3 Earth years. And I can imagine a 9yr old being clever.

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I've read another ~25 pages, to where Yuli is "becoming professional" at his job.

I'm really liking the contrast between outside and inside. I'm sure others have written about this before, but its my first time seeing it in the context of a character's experience.

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Perhaps I should expand a little on why I disliked it. I was intrigued by the idea of the story of a planet waking up after an ice age and the scale of the situation should have carried the story along. But instead Aldiss chose to get bogged down in a fantasy tale about a medieval village and its very Earthlike inhabitants. I can remember that when the plot shifted focus from this rather predictable group of wizards and no-hopers, things would get more interesting but not for long enough.

Great covers though!

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Do you remember an older Sci-Fi story, the title was something like Nightfall? It was about a civilization that was facing darkness for the first time, and mentioned those who were planning to keep things going through the expected resultant collapse of society. I see the start of this novel as the end-point of the kind of thing that was started in Nightfall.

Hi Red, yes I know Nightfall by Asimov (also made into a novella by someone else, I think) but I can't see the connection with Helliconia. Then again, it's been a few years since I read either so you could be on to something

Hi Red, yes I know Nightfall by Asimov (also made into a novella by someone else, I think) but I can't see the connection with Helliconia. Then again, it's been a few years since I read either so you could be on to something

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For me, I liked playing with the thought of how things developed for those who'd made the preparations.

I don't remember how long the darkness was expected to last (very brief I think). But if one extends the concept for several thousand years, Helliconia's Pannoval might be one result.

I've read the series a very long time ago really enjoyed it. It had lots of original elements to it. Not only the cultures, conflicts and biology of the sentient species on Helliconia but also the human space station at the end of a very long teather back to Earth and how they deal with their situation.
An excellent choice, highly recommended!

the characterization I'd say was the weakest aspect of the novel if I had to pick out something..

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Yes: I'd agree with that, although I later realised (on re-reading many years later) that that detached nature allows it to be 'a planetary romance', rather in the style of HG Wells, where the characters rather play second fiddle (at least in part) to the actions and changes on the planet itself. The planet itself is a character and the reader revels in its appearance and changes.

Didn't get that first time: but as Brian is (still, I think) vice-president of the HG Wells Society, perhaps I should've.

What the hell happened at fish lake ??? why did all the phagors freeze?? what was the real reason? I guess i must of missed it!

-Kris

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The clue is in Aldiss's description. Fish Lake is mirror like, not a ripple. The water is already several degrees below zero, but there isn't enough energy in the lake for small ice crystals to form and join together to freeze it. Water can exist in this state, but it's really unstable. When the phagors jump in the small ice crystals suddenly have something to form around, at which point the entire body of water suddenly crystalises into more stable ice. It's called super-cooling. My guess is that Aldiss used it to illustrate how science is being interpreted as magic, because of everything the Oldorandans have forgotten during the winter.

The clue is in Aldiss's description. Fish Lake is mirror like, not a ripple. The water is already several degrees below zero, but there isn't enough energy in the lake for small ice crystals to form and join together to freeze it. Water can exist in this state, but it's really unstable. When the phagors jump in the small ice crystals suddenly have something to form around, at which point the entire body of water suddenly crystalises into more stable ice. It's called super-cooling. My guess is that Aldiss used it to illustrate how science is being interpreted as magic, because of everything the Oldorandans have forgotten during the winter.